"Star Trek softened up the entertainment arena so that Star Wars could come along and stand on its shoulders," says Lucas in the upcoming documentary Trek Nation.

"There was an effective group of people in the beginning who accepted it... that it wasn't that far out. For the studios it was way far out, [they said] 'what is this?' but there was a fanbase out there - primarily the Star Trek fanbase - who understood sci-fi, understood visual sci-fi, and was ready for something like [Star Wars] to be in the feature arena."

The Star Trek and Star Wars franchises have traditionally been considered to be at odds with each other.